Sant Jordi 2019

On the feast day of Sant Jordi (St George), the patron saint of Catalonia, nearly every building bears the red and gold Catalan flag, while bakeries sell Sant Jordi bread streaked with red 'sobrassada' sausage pâté. Red roses decorate buidings and the city’s many statues and paintings of George in all his dragon-slaying glory. It’s said that as the drops of the dragon’s blood fell, they turned into red flowers – and for more than five centuries, this has been the Catalan version of St Valentine’s Day. Men traditionally gave women a rose tied to an ear of wheat, and women reciprocated with a book; this is also ‘the Day of the Book’. It accounts for an amazing 10 percent of Catalonia’s annual book sales, and street stalls and bookshops give good discounts.